


Smoke, Flasks, and Unfinished Tasks

by SkelleBonez



Category: LEGO Monkie Kid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Childhood Trauma, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grudges, Hero/Villain Team Up, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Missing Persons, Multi, Pigsy and Sandy are the same characters from JTTW, References to JTTW, Rescue Missions, Surprise Characters - Freeform, Team as Family, Traffic light trio, context for red son joining team MK will be given in fic, no beta we die like wukong dropped a mountain on us for 500 years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28847832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkelleBonez/pseuds/SkelleBonez
Summary: It had been over a year since MK became the Monkie Kid. Months since Mei formed an unlikely bond with the Monkey King. Fewer months since Red Son had defected from his parents and was desperate to prove to everyone he could change a second time. In all that time a routine was set, communication alleys were formed, and agreements were made. Things had been going well.Now the trio was missing without a single clue to where they had gone. And they weren't the only ones.(Tags will be updated as the fic goes on to avoid spoilers.)
Relationships: Demon Bull King/Princess Iron Fan, Long Xiaojiao | Mei & Red Son, Pigsy/Tang, Qi Xiaotian | MK & Long Xiaojiao | Mei, Qi Xiaotian | MK/Red Son
Comments: 15
Kudos: 67





	1. Thunder and Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a short prompt fill on my Tumblr blog (same name), but I got a few responses and ended up liking it enough to completely rewrite it into a multi-chapter fic!  
> For context, this takes place after season 1 and is set in a divergent timeline where Red Son decides to join MK's team as a trio with him and Mei due to the events of that season. These events will be explored later in the fic.  
> I also head canon Mei and MK as at least 20 each (due to things like driving laws), but that doesn't really play into much.

They were late. They had made sure to remind him of their plans multiple times last night... and they were late.

Sun Wukong, The Monkey King himself, would have been starting to get angry if he wasn't so worried. He wouldn't be surprised if Mei was late, it wasn't odd for her get distracted by some new thing she wanted to show him and take the time to get it before coming by. But Red Son and MK as well? That wasn't normal. MK had only been late to training once, that had been during the entire incident with Macaque ~~training~~ tricking him (they don't talk about that anymore), but even then he wasn't this late. Not to mention Red Son's thickheaded determination to show off just how serious he was about joining their side. He'd made promise after promise and did his best to keep his word in attempt to impress them, even going as far as going far over and earlier than what he promised.

The three of them were supposed to come to Flower Fruit Mountain for the day. Some training for MK, video games with Mei, and Red Son just tagging along so someone could keep an eye on the new comer (by Red Son's own insistence). They never showed. Didn't even send him an e-mail. He'd waited almost a hour, a personal record for patience, but not a peep from any of them. Something was wrong.

That was why he found himself standing outside of Pigsy's Noodles in the middle of the day disguised as a human, tail wrapped around his waist as a "stylish belt". Though, in retrospect, a mysterious man with flawless eyeliner falling from the sky without a single injury was not the most inconspicuous way to arrive. He didn't take the time to think about that, instead entering the noodle shop with a hastiness in his step he couldn't hide.

"Welcome to Pigsy's Noodles, home of the lon-oh..." The chipper greeting from the shop owner was cut off, a mix of annoyance and confusion taking over the tone. Pigsy looked over the counter at him and the ever present Tang turned around in suit. "It's just you. Ain't you supposed to be not here? With the trio?"

"Yeah," Wukong started, laughing oddly as he rubbing the back of his neck. There was an awkwardness he wished he could get rid of, something that didn't really belong on him. But things had always been tense between him and his once-younger brother and the tenseness had only grown since their separation after the journey. After he trapped the Demon Bull King. After he vanished for 500 years... after he came back. "See, funny story about that! I was waiting for them and you know how impatient I am but I was doing my best to not be so I waited for almost an hour and they kinda never... showed up?"

"What do you mean never showed up?" Pigsy questioned carefully, coming around he counter and brandishing a ladle in one hand.

"They did leave pretty late," Tang offered quickly, awkward smile showing he could sense the tension between the two old friends. "Red Son was fixing some of the equipment in the kitchen, maybe they ran into a demon and are on their way to the island right now! Maybe you just... missed them?"

"Yeah!" Wukong agreed immediately, laughing harder to hide his worry. Tang didn't seem convinced by his own explanation but Wukong as more willing to believe that without question than think about what the alternative could mean. "Yeah, that's probably it! I'm sure they're just fine, but if it makes you feel better I'm going to take a look around. If they make it there before I do they're sure to come home when they realize I didn't wait for them. Yup, totally sure of it. BYE!"

He ran out the door, jumping on his cloud faster than anyone could follow and took off in the direction of his home. He didn't miss the odd frown on Pigsy's face at his overly quick reaction.

\----------

They weren't anywhere he could see on the way to Flower Fruit Mountain. They weren't on the island or in any of the surrounding areas. There were no boats or any sign of a pogo ride on the staff on the sandy beach. There was just... nothing.

He only waited for another 10 minutes before the concern (not worry, he was not worried the three were very capable adults despite him thinking of them as ~~his kids~~ kids, one was even an ancient demon who nearly bested him centuries ago for Heaven's sake) took over once again and his somersault cloud was getting more distance this day that it had in years. He zipped back and forth over the ocean, looking for any sign of bodies people, boats, anything, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found absolutely nothing in the calm and clear water. But this only raised more questions. They had left Pigsy's, there were witnesses, but had they made it to- Sandy! He was so focused on them coming by that he forgot how they would get there!

\----------

"I'm sorry, elder brother," Sandy said with a frown. "They weren't going to come by today, see?" He held up his phone, way too small for his massive hands, a text from Mei reading "Took ur boat yestday, srry! Will return tmm! *heart heart heart cat*" Well. That at least explained how they were supposed to get there without going to Sandy.

The Monkey King, changed back to his usual form, took a half shaky breath and sipped the tea the fish demon had offered him the moment he opened the door. Mo sat in his lap, purring softly as he no doubt sensed the tension in the air. "Then where are they..?" He wondered out loud. He hadn't seen one of Sandy's boats anywhere, they stuck out like a big blue sore thumb just like his still-younger brother.

"I don't know," Sandy answered, standing and stretching before giving the shorter man a wide smile. "But I'll do anything to help!"

\----------

He'd returned to Pigsy's shop immediately after that, not bothering to change back into his human disguise. That took so little energy and time but it was still energy and time he didn't want to waste. It had just started to sprinkle rain, the weather station having planned this for some time now. He had sent Sandy out to check all the waterways in the area, just to be safe, and he hoped that his search would be fruitless. He really hoped he sent Sandy on a wild goose chase...

"Are they back?" He demanded the second he opened the door, startling the 2 customers in the shop in addition to Tang and Pigsy. "Pigsy, Tang, did they come back?"

The dawning worry on the two men's faces was enough of an answer for Wukong to immediately run out, ignoring the shouts that followed him as he flew off again.

\----------

It was starting to rain harder. They weren't at Mei's house.

\----------

It was starting to downpour. He didn't see them at any of the food stalls.

\----------

The downpour worsened. They weren't at the anti-gravity arcade.

\----------

It was a torrential downpour. Red Son's apartment was empty.

\----------

There was electricity in the air. They hadn't been taken to the hospital.

\----------

Thunder and lightning. He carefully flew around DBK and PIF's hideout. He heard them talking about their next plan to "knock sense" into their son. They weren't there.

\----------

It was when he was nearly struck by lightning, nothing that would have actually caused him real harm but would have hurt like he'd been hit by a truck, that Sun Wukong finally decided that he wasn't going to find the trio. Not like this. Running around without a plan was not helping. He wouldn't find his kids like this.

So he made his way back to Pigsy's, soaked to the bone and brain fuzzy. Numb almost, not from the cold but in a mental exhaustion he couldn't explain. He walked in with his head down, dripping icy water from his fur, and was greeting with an almost as cold hiss before he could say anything.

"Where are my kids, Wukong?"

He looked up and took in the sight before him. Pigsy, Tang, Sandy, and Mo were all gathered in the shop. He hadn't even noticed it was closed until that moment. Sandy had a towel over his shoulders, as did the little blue cat, and they sat sipping a bowl of hot broth each.

"You said they'd come home. So, where are they?"

Wukong grit his teeth, continuing to avert his eyes from the furious gaze of his once-brother. "Idon'tknow..."

"What was that?" Pigsy almost yelled, stepping forward to grab he tails of his soaked cloak to drag hi down to eye level. "You said they'd come home! Where the FUCK are my kids, Sun Wukong!?"

"I don't know!" He grabbed Pigsy's hands, not gripping them or moving to remove them just holding them, grip shaking as he tried to keep his tone level. "I don't know, Pigsy, I looked everywhere but... I couldn't..."

For a split second there was nothing but disbelief and fear in the shorter ancient's eyes and it hurt Wukong more than he thought it would. Far more than he prepared himself for. Everything from the entire day came forth to hit him like the lightning truck he barely missed and he collapsed to his knees, mental exhaustion finally taking it's toll and tears began to mix with the rain water running down his fur as he looked off into nothing. He came to the horrifying realization that he really had no answer.

"I don't know where they are Pigsy..."

\----------

"You ok, bud?"

MK groaned as the Monkey King grabbed him by his arms and stood him up, brushing all the dirt from his clothes. Training had been going well, Red Son and Mei battling each other in the new Monkey Mech game as he continued to have his butt handed to him. But he had gotten a single hit in on his mentor, matching his last training session, and he looked so proud of him! "Yeah, we gonna go again?"

"Nah, I think making a new crater with your own body twice in one day is more than enough," Monkey King laughed out, guiding MK toward the small house he called home now. "Besides, I want to kick your butt in Monkey Mech too!"

"Hey! I'll totally kick your butt!"

"Prove it Monkie Man!"

Despite the lighthearted banter between them something just felt... off. MK couldn't quite put his finger on it... now that he really gave it thought...

Didn't the weather station call for rain today?


	2. This Altitude Ain't the Only Thing I Got Over You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clearly riding around on a cloud in the rain with no plan is not going to find the trio. Team Monkie Kid needs an actual plan to figure out where they are. Unfortunately, while no one really likes Monkey King’s suggestions they may have to go through with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even and odd number chapters will have separate theming and if you guess the even number theming... I will be genuinely surprised.  
> EDIT: I have already decided to forego chapter theming, I am just going with the even chapter idea.

Pigsy would have still been pissed off if the Monkey King didn’t look so... so damn _sad_.

He hadn’t spoken since his little outburst. Tang had only barely gotten him to stand and take a seat at one of the restaurant tables before offering him a fresh towel to dry his fur (as much as he could anyway, Pigsy would still need to clean the seat later). It almost surprised him that he was taking this so much worse than the rest of them... but then again he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised at all.

Sun Wukong had changed quite a bit over the years he was gone, more so now that the trio was inserted into his life on a regular basis. More so than even on that journey they took together all those centuries ago. He knew the monkey always had a huge soft spot for kids (even if the “kids” were grown ass adults apparently, but he was one to talk) and the idea of three kids he was in charge of and caring for vanishing into the void of who knows where with no one to punch in retribution was the line drawn in the sand for him.

He just sat there, towel over his shoulders and head and looking down at the warm bowl of plain noodles and broth in his hands dejectedly. Every so often he took a sip or slowly ate a single long noodle so at least Pigsy knew they hadn’t completely lost him yet.

“What do we do now?” Tang asked softly behind him, tone one of clearly tampered down worry. The scholarly man had done his best to help in whatever way he could, mostly by checking social media for any trace he could find since Mei was on there more than anyone else they knew and any sightings of Mei or Red Son or MK always drew attention now.

Unfortunately, her online trail stopped not even 20 minutes after they left. It gave them a good idea of where they were heading, though. Mei’s last post was a selfie of her hugging a very disgruntled Red Son, a cheese tea stall and MK making a purchase behind them, with the caption “Pre-training treat time! Let’s see if this Spicy Boy likes spicy tea!”

It would have been cute if it wasn’t the last thing she posted and if no one seemed to post about seeing them afterward...

“We know what stall they were at, yeah?” Pigsy pulled up a map of the city on his phone and sat down at the table with Sandy, letting Wukong sit alone for the moment but making sure he could hear their conversation. “If they borrowed one of Sandy’s boats it’s gotta be somewhere. We find the nearest docks and start there, maybe-”

“It’s not there,” Wukong interrupted suddenly. His tone was stilted, soft and thoughtful but held back. “I checked the docks when I flew over the ocean. No blue boats. Why does no one have blue boats?”

“Hmn...” Pigsy rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. “That’s something though, makes it faster. We just gotta check with any dock masters, see if they remember a blue boat or if it was confiscated.”

“I can do that,” Sandy offered, Mo jumping onto his shoulder with an approving meow. “All the dock masters know me, some of them owe me some favors. If I tell them it’s my boat they’d definitely help out.”

“OK... OK, that’s a good start!” Tang smiled approvingly as he seemed to get some zeal back into him. “I’m going to keep checking online, but I can call or stop by the stalls and see if anyone working at the time remembers seeing where they went!”

“Good, good we’re getting somewhere!” Pigsy finally smiled himself, looking over the map and making a note of when all the surrounding stores closed. “If we can find the dock where the boat was left, even if we don’t find the boat, and the direction they left the stall in, we should be able to figure out a vague idea of the path they took. We’re gonna need more of a plan, maybe someone should go to the weather station and see if we can get them to let up the storm, but we have something now.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Wukong agreed from behind them, gulping down more of his broth. “So that’s good. But...”

When Pigsy turned around he frowned again, matching the expression on the face of his once-brother. “But?”

“I think we’re going to need more help,” Wukong sighed, grimacing as he looked out at the storm. “For the three of them to just vanish... They’re strong. Way too strong for any random human to take them. Way too strong for a lot of demons. If they didn’t do this on purpose, and they would _never_ do this on purpose, the person who did this is...”

Suddenly Wukong’s disposition made much more sense. Suddenly Pigsy realized the one thing he had overlooked, the one thing all three of them except the Monkey King overlooked.

Mei was the descendant of a dragon. MK was the Monkie Kid. Red Son was Red Son.

For someone to take all three of them at the same time they would have to either be incredibly smart, incredibly powerful, or a very dangerous combination of both.

“Shit... SHIT.” Pigsy smashed his fist into the table, angry at himself for not realizing it sooner. He’d underestimated his kids and now it was obvious that even if they found them with his plan the only one any way equipped to do anything about this was Wukong himself. And he looked worried. “Well then who the hell are we supposed to ask!?” 

Despite how angry and gruff his question was, Wukong didn’t seem to take any offense to it. He ran his fingers over the fur on his face, humming for a moment before nodding to himself. “I think... first, we do your plan. Then, we need to see the Spider Queen.”

“Oh HELL no,” Tang shouted, hitting the table himself as he stood and startled everyone in the room with his outburst. “There is no way we are teaming up with HER! She tried to eat Pigsy! AND MK!”

“And you.”

“That’s besides the point Pigsy.”

“We’re not teaming up with her,” Wukong said quickly, holding up his hands in an attempt to placate the angry man. “But she has always had a knack for gathering information, sometimes even without her knowing, because of her spider minions. If we can convince her with some kind of trade we could get at least some kind of intel on the local demon action. It’s worth a try if I can intimidate her just enough to keep her from fighting.”

Tang almost growled under his breath, which was very interesting to everyone else being he was the only human in the room, but eventually he nodded and sat back down. “Fine... but I do not like it.”

“That’s fair... because I’m pretty sure you are _really_ not going to like my next suggestion...” Wukong tensed as everyone looked right at him, faces a mixture of disbelief and worry. What could he possibly suggest that could be worse than going to the Spider Queen in an attempt to gather information?

“... I think... we might need to get help... from DBK.”

\----------

“Something up, Noodle Boy?” Red Son leaned over, game controller surrendered to the Monkey King after losing best of three against Mei. “You’re being oddly quiet.”

“I... I dunno Red,” MK muttered, watching one of his best friends and his mentor battle in Monkey Mech. “Does anything feel... off to you?”

“Off?” Red hummed under his breath, looking around with a concerning gaze. “No? Why?” His tone sounded even, but it was clear to MK that just asking the question had made the fire demon’s senses raise.

“Wasn’t it supposed to rain today?”

“Yeah. Again, why?”

“... I’ll tell you later.”


	3. Big Words Traveler, But Can You Back Them Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MK starts to realize things are a bit too familiar right now, an unspoken event is revealed, and someone else realizes other things. There is a lot to unpack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild violence and "smoking" in this chapter.

Something felt... off. That's the only way MK could describe it. Off.

It reminded him of the Calabash when he thought about it, but was it even possible? When Jin and Yin had trapped him in that weird mechanical gourd thing they had tried to make everything perfect, barring those odd earthquakes and the glitches that his mind made excuses for ignoring at the time. Really, they were actually pretty bad at their scheme and he should have picked up on it a lot sooner. This time nothing felt perfect, however, everything felt... mostly normal.

The Monkey King kicked his butt in scheduled training and then lost matches in Monkey Mech and refused to stop until he had best out of 15. Mei and Red Son seemed to be acting like normal. No earthquakes. No glitches.

But his time in the Calabash had made him more observant of his surroundings and his mistake with Macaque had made him less trusting. The fact the weather station called for rain and it had not rained? That was just odd enough to catch his attention when the weather station hadn't messed up a forecast without someone attacking it or really messing something up, something that always got local news alerts sent to their phones and would have had Mei making fun of the poor sap who messed up by now, in the entire time he had a phone.

Something didn’t just feel off. Something was off. And just in case he was right he needed to play his cards carefully. Do something that wouldn’t raise suspicion.

“Hey, Monkey King?” He smiled, knowing that his expression was just fake enough that if the other were real he would call it in an instant. He would raise his eyebrow or ask him what was up or ask him what the look was for. “We have any snacks?”

“Yeah, bud, coming right up!” He just... smiled. Stood. Walked into the kitchen.

This was not The Great Sage Equal To Heaven.

This was not his mentor.

Well... Shit.

\----------

“Wait, back up,” Mei turned from where she sat at the boat wheel. “What does that even mean?”

MK had gotten her to stop before they were nearly back to the City, feeling bad they stopped in such a poor spot for Red Son but determined to talk when they were seemingly alone. He’d played along and only grown more certain in his deduction that the person they were with was not the Monkey King. The more he paid attention the more certain he was that they weren’t on Flower Fruit Mountain either.

The mountain always smelled of four things. Flowers, peaches, dirt, and the slightest undertone of molten rock and ash from close by the Flaming Mountains. The more he tried to pick up the normal scents that would hit him they just seemed... muted, somehow. Like smelling them through a mask or like they were artificial. The rock and ash was nowhere to be found at all.

And there was more. He tried so hard to remember how he got to the mountain. Logically he knew they took a boat, they had to do that. There was a boat on the shore. But that was the first thing he remembered seeing. He could not remember the boat ride over, could not remember the walk to where they docked the boat at all, could barely remember anything past leaving Pigsy’s Noodles at all. Gaps in his memory were not an every day occurrence for him (despite Pigsy teasing him about forgetting to do his job, that was not the same thing).

The only things he knew for certain were real were Mei and Red Son. He’d almost let his anxiety get the better of him, memories of summoning monster trees with his stress being the thing that made him focus long enough to test the waters.

He knew that burying his face in their hair and smelling them was weird as hell, even given their close relationship that was pushing it way too far in comfort, but given scent was the most telling sense giving him pause he had to try once Monkey King was distracted. If it had been any other situation Mei and Red Son’s disturbed and confused faces (and the muffled “what the fuck dude” from Mei) would have been hilarious, but when he could clearly smell Mei’s tea tree shampoo mixed in with the ever present scent her bike’s motor oil he was certain she was real. He was almost certain when Red tensed up and flushed when he repeated the action, but the scent of slight burning and his overly expensive coconut oil and jasmine shampoo cemented the fact he was real as well.

He’d make up for making them uncomfortable after all this was over.

“Exactly what I said, that wasn’t Monkey King,” MK repeated, looking over the horizon at the city-scape. Still no rain. No clouds. It was half an hour until sundown. “I don’t... this is going to sound crazy... but I don’t think this is real.”

His companions looked at each other in clear concern and MK knew he would finally have to come clean. “MK, wh-”

“There’s something I never told any of you. Not even Monkey King. Just... promise you’ll listen to me?”

\----------

When he finished recounting the long ago misadventure he had in Jin and Yin’s Calabash he couldn’t look Mei and Red Son in their eyes. Despite knowing he probably shouldn’t he felt guilty for keeping something that important a secret.

“Oh MK... That’s why you were so preoccupied with us not being perfect,” Mei said softly, standing to envelop her friend in a sudden hug that barely shook the boat. “I’m sorry for losing my cool with you back then.I should have known something was weird when you said that.”

A shaky breathe MK didn’t know he was holding escaped, grateful that they seemed to believe him immediately.

“No, I’m the one who should be sorry,” MK pulled away, giving Mei an awkward smile. Red Son had moved closer, and he shot him a smile as well when he placed a hand on his shoulder. “I should have told everyone when it happened, I just... I felt..” He trailed off, looking at the rainless city again. “We can unpack that later, right now we need to see if we’re really in another Calabash or if it’s something similar. If it is Jin and Yin again they’ve really stepped up their game.”

“I don’t think so...” Red Son said thoughtfully. He bit the end of his thumb nail, pacing the boat slowly in thought. “They seemed more preoccupied with just... having fun almost, last time. They didn’t seem to have an endgame past ‘capture the Monkie Kid’. What’s the end game? Why capture all three of us?”

“Yeah...” MK sighed, looking around carefully. “I dunno.. come to think of it, it all just feels different. This time it’s a lot closer and that is really scary if I’m being honest,” MK shuddered, not comfortable with how much better it was if he was really correct. “But it isn’t 100% accurate. Everything smells dull and Monkey King wasn’t picking up on things he normally would have.”

“Is that why you smelled o-”

“Unpacking later!”

“Why don’t we do what you did to get out last time?” Red Son interrupted, looking hopeful that he had solved the problem already. “We just have to find your staff.”

“Yeah that... that’s another problem...” MK bit his lip and held his hand up to his ear. The glow that lit from it illuminated the dawning horror on his friend’s faces as the staff materialized in his hand. They both seemed to regret not watching MK train that day when they realized what this meant. “That... may not work this time.”

\----------

“You’re bleedin’ delusional!” The demon couldn’t help but groan out, pacing wildly in growing frustration. Before them both was a set of screens, watching the display of the trio’s conversation. The entire room looked like something right out of one of those American spy thrillers they’d seen, computers and monitors hooked up and showing a multitude of views. “I told you, you can’t just throw that many people in at once! It doesn’t matter how improved it is, it messes up, confuses the simulation! And-and you let ‘im keep the bloody staff! He’s-”

“Not getting out any time soon,” the other demon, seated comfortably in the only chair in the room, soothed. Their words were like poisoned honey and the first demon grimaced. How they let themselves be taken in by these words... they would never forgive themselves now, not after all of this. Not after what happened to- “Patience is what you and your brother lacked the first time. They don’t need to believe it, they just need to stay in it. Come now, you need to... relax.”

The first demon, the smaller demon, backed a step away as the seated one sat up straighter. They weren’t fast enough to get away from the clawed hand that gripped their throat, cutting off their air supply and pulling them far too close to the other’s face. No fight was given, they knew what would happen if they tried, and watched anxiously as the seated demon raised their forearm long smoking pipe to their lips to take a long drag on whatever foul concoction they had in it.

“Just rest Yin.” Their open mouth revealed colored smoke, sickeningly sweet and fruity smelling, swirling around inside before they loosened the grip on his throat to blow it directly into his face as he took a hasty breath of oxygen. "Perhaps you'll be more patient after a nice long nap."

The blue demon coughed when the other finally let him go, breathing deeply in the hopes he didn’t inhale as much smoke as he feared he did. As he tipped backward onto the ground he knew that was a fruitless thought. Now he laid on the ground with his head fuzzy and gaze filled with the equally unconscious visage of his elder brother.

The Gold and Silver demons... had really messed up...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the where, now its time for the who and why.


	4. Oh I can back them up and than some, show me what you got

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one is happy with Wukong’s suggestions, not even Wukong himself. But they only have so many options and depending on what they learn from certain demons they have fewer options going forward.

"Have you lost your fucking MIND!?” Pigsy snapped, getting up and grabbing the tails of Wukong’s cape to drag him down to eye height. “DBK? The Demon Bull King? You want us to team up with HIM!? You buried him under a mountain for centuries, what makes you think he’d agree to that!?”

“Red Son.”

Pigsy froze for a moment, grimacing as he began taking the time to think this response over. The Demon Bull family had a... difficult relationship with Red Son, one that was undeniably unhealthy (and now that he had seen how much Red had mellowed out and blossomed since defecting to their side it was one the pig was glad he was out of). But the two demons were clearly protective of him in their own twistedly weird way.

He remembered how much they fought during their attempts to gain Princess Iron Fan's fan, fueled by anger at Wukong defeating their son and sending him off as Guanyin's disciple. MK had told him how PIF herself had defended Red from DBK when he was possessed by the White Bone Spirit, Red explaining that they had never stood for anyone physically hurting him outside of a proper battle when the topic eventually came up again, so there was some level of... care there somewhere. Bizarre and messed up care. Even if he didn't think it was anywhere near enough to make up for whatever had happened to undo Guanyin's teachings, it was something...

Something that they could use to their advantage to get them on their side temporarily.

"I hate it to admit it," Pigsy conceded with a gruff sigh as he let go of the monkey's cape tassels. "But you might be right. If they know he's missing they'll come runnin to look for him, and I’d rather them learn from us and work with us than fight against them if they find out themselves.”

He looked back at his phone, setting up the map on his phone to the nearest docks. “I don't like it, and if we DO ask for their help there ain't no way we're letting them get close to being alone with Red! I really don’t like that we even have to consider it, but if that’s what it takes I’ll do it.”

To say everyone looked surprised by his quick concession was an understatement, even Wukong himself raised an eyebrow at the shorter man. But no one knew what to really say to argue against it.

“So...” Wukong finally said as he stood with a smirk, dried and looking as regal as he ever did. “What’s the official plan, brother?”

“Sandy, head straight for the docks,” Pigsy said with a smirk back, pointing to each of them in turn. “You’re gonna talk to the dock masters and get all the info you can out of them. Tang, you and I are going together and I want you to call all the food stalls and shops in the area to see if they’re still open and if anyone is still workin who remembers seeing them. If anyone finds something we call the other and keep them updated.”

He turned to Wukong, eyes blazing in that same determination he had during their old journey. “First off, get an umbrella from my lost and found so you don’t drench yourself again. Then I want you to head to the weather station. Human disguise, no disguise, I don’t care how much you gotta show off just get them to stop the storm. You’re the only one of us with a lawyer on speed-dial, get them to bail you out if you gotta.”

Had it been 500 years ago Wukong probably would have teased the pig demon for taking charge like this. But now, all Pigsy could see in his face was the same determination he felt and some odd aura of pride coming from him. “Whatever it takes.”

“Whatever it takes.”

\----------

The plan was working surprisingly well, all things considered. Over the course of the last hour Sandy had managed to find his boat (it had indeed been confiscated for illegally parking and the dock-master was more than willing to let it slide with a warning) so they knew where they were supposed to go. Wukong himself had made quick work of the weather station, apparently just showing up as The Monkey King was enough to get the station head to approve a change of weather for the rest of the day (once the poor guy on duty managed to get him to look at the screen to prove he was really there). At the very least Wukong’s lawyer would have a much easier week.

Because of this, Wukong (now in human disguise again) and Sandy were able to meet back up with Pigsy and Tang, the later after taking the most obvious route to get to the food stalls the trio was last seen at. If he had found any evidence of them taking that route it would have made everything so much easier, but he hadn’t even found a scrap of cloth. But progress was progress.

“And you’re sure you never saw them?”

“Sorry, man, I’ve been here all day and I’d remember seein the guy who brings my lunch twice a week and saves the city twice as much,” the cashier said with an apologetic shrug. “Wish I could help ya more... when ya see the guy, tell him I’ll hold his game for him, it’s the least I could do.”

“I will, and you’ve helped us a lot more than you think,” Tang said, turning to leave the shop. “Thank you for your time!” He rushed out, grouping back up with the other three adults (and one cat).

“OK, apparently MK was supposed to pick up another game from this used game store before heading to training and they never came to pick it up!” He announced, accepting the offered coffee from Sandy and taking a gulp of it and wincing at the bitterness. But he needed the fuel. “Oh, that is disgusting... But back to the search, we know a rough area where they had to disappear from now!”

“Hmn...” Wukong wasn’t looking at Tang, instead watching the high space between two buildings to the side of them. “And I bet a certain someone we talked about earlier knows about that area too...”

The rest of the group looked down the alley and finally put two and two together about where exactly they were and realized it lead into the part of the shopping district where Pigsy always went to get fresh ingredients. The exact same part where a certain eight legged demon happened to make her home underground. When they followed Wukong’s gaze upward they could see the tiny spiderweb that had caught his attention.

“Oh God damn it,” Tang groaned.

\----------

No one was happy about this, least of all Pigsy and Tang. But small bits of luck, they weren’t entering the lair of the Spider Queen by falling down a scary nightmare hole this time. Instead they drove to that nearest dock for Sandy to take the confiscated boat so the three non-flying men could enter from the escape route they had made the last time they had been down there (with some assistance getting through the still broken sewer drain). Once they were under the still wide open hole Wukong had flown them all up on his cloud one by one.

And it was still as musty and spider webby as it had been before. They knew it was pointless to try sneaking around, instead just keeping their guard up as they made their way toward the main lair.

“Maybe she’s out,” Sandy offered when they saw no sign of her, scratching his head.

“Or maybe she’s been watching you the whole time~.” The three non-monkey team members jumped at the voice of the Spider Queen, moving closer to Sun Wukong as she slowly descended from the ceiling. “Monkey King! To what do I own the prestigious displeasure of seeing you again?” Her voice held the same playful tone as before, but there was an edge of tenseness and anger under it. “I certainly hope you haven’t harmed any more of my family on your way in, ape.”

From their vantage point his teammates could see Wukong’s fur bristle in annoyance at the slight. “I think you of all people would know not to call me that.”

“Ah, yes, I remember our last meeting,” The Spider Queen bit back as she made herself comfortable on the other side of the room, as comfortable as she could get in a stance clearly ready to run off at any moment. “The one where you squashed all of my sisters alive and I barely managed to escape. My apologies. It’s good to know you haven’t forgotten about me entirely.”

“If you play nice I can promise this meeting will have much fewer spider guts decorating your walls,” Wukong hissed out, crossing his arms as he took a step forward. “It will be much shorter too. We just want some information.”

The Spider Queen hissed right back, crawling back a foot up the wall. “I’m not stupid enough to want to fight you again, not now. Go on, ask so we can get this little reunion over and done with.”

Tang watched as the spiders that surrounded them all seemed to move back in tandem with their queen, following suit for their own safety most likely. She was much more subdued this time around, and there was no playful tone in her voice anymore. Something told him the stories he pictured, where Monkey King squashed the six other spider sisters in tiny spider forms, were much less accurate than he originally imagined. He shuddered at the thought.

“Did you have any spiders out near the shopping district before the storm today?”

Raising an eyebrow, the Spider Queen waved her hand and called over a small handful of her normal sized spider minions. She held them up to her ear, listening to them without taking her gaze off the Monkey King. “Ah I see... so the little Monkie Kid and his friends are missing.” She allowed herself a smirk for half a second before frowning again. “Didn’t know going missing was contagious.”

“What does that mean?” Tang asked without thinking, flinching back when her gaze fell on him for a moment.

“That little trio isn’t the first group my spiders have overheard people looking for,” The Spider Queen elaborated, gently putting the spiders on her nearest web. “And unfortunately for me, that means it’s probably good you came here. Fantastic.” She crawled down off the wall, moving sideways and over to little cauldron pot thing she had planned on stewing Pigsy and Tang in, picking up... a business card? “Catch.”

She tossed the card to Wukong who caught it effortlessly, looking at the slightly haphazardly drawn but surprisingly professionally printed card with surprise. “’Jin and Yin, Gold and Silver Demon Tech Services. For whatever anti-Monkie Kid and non-anti-Monkie Kid tech you may need...’? Those two are still around?”

“And they owe me a replacement for something of theirs your Kid broke the last time he was here, probably would have gotten it sooner if I had noticed faster,” she scoffed, shaking her head. “They were supposed to meet me here a week ago and they’ve vanished to who knows where. No one who has any orders from them can find them. It’s like they were sucked into one of their calabashes.”

“Their WHAT?” Wukong snapped, his voice echoing in the cave and making his companions flinch at the volume.

“Did... did that Kid not tell you?” The Spider Queen asked in genuine surprise. “Those two wouldn’t shut up about it after it happened, they’ve been making calabashes with some kind of VR tech and somehow managed to catch the Monkie Kid on their own! It didn’t work for long, obviously, but the fact they had him went to their heads for like a month. Pretty obnoxious, actually.”

There was a growl heard from the back of Wukong’s throat. “Well... this isn’t exactly what I expected to hear from you.”

The Spider Queen hummed, looking thoughtful for a moment. “You know, I have no love lost for your kids or those two and quite frankly I don’t care what happens to them.” She smirked a bit at Pigsy’s snapped “HEY!” before frowning again. “But them going missing together? That just feels like an even worse storm is coming down and I don’t like the feeling of how that bodes for me. Maybe nothing will come of it. Maybe it’ll help me. But I don’t want to take that chance.”

Suddenly she jumped backward, situating herself on a large web far out of their reach high in her cave. “Your kids vanished after they got to the food market. They went into a tea shop and never came out. That’s all my babies saw. Now take your leave.”

\----------

“Yin, this is a terrible idea!”

“Well we can’t exactly get out of ‘ere while she’s gone, now can we?” Yin snapped, bandaging a small cut on his elder brother’s head from when he hit the floor. “Do you have a better idea?”

The Gold Horned Demon sighed, shaking his head once the bandage was on. “No... no I don’t. I should though, I’m the one that got us into this bloody mess.”

“And now you can be the one to get us out of it. Hopefully.” Jin bit his lip, listening carefully as he picked something up. “Right, she’ll think you’re still in here restin’ after she hit you with too much of that smoke stuff. I’ll cover you as long as I can. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Is your name Jin?”

“... Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Spider Queen seems to be the only antagonist in Monkie Kid not directly based on anyone from Journey To The West, but there were 7 Spider Demon Sisters that they came across. She's most likely based off of one of them and I used that story as the basis for her here.


	5. Gladly, your journey ends here with me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s nothing that brings opposing sides together like a mutual enemy, though who that enemy is...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to take a short break after THE SPECIAL to retool, replan, and rewrite some stuff in the next few chapters and make sure they would fit with what I have already posted, as well as wait for the last episode to be subbed so I could double check what I had in this chapter before posting. This fic is already canon divergent (and now a full on AU) so that helped a lot. All you need to know now is that in SFAUT another year is added in the timeline and 1 New Year has already passed. I will provide spoiler warnings for any chapter in the future since some stuff in the special will be relevant to this fic now. (There are none in this one! No Spoilers Inside!)

“Come on, come on Jin... Ah ha!” Yin let out a triumphant yell as the two Calabashes finally connected remotely, one hidden tucked away where their now unwanted business partner hopefully couldn’t find it, and he quickly closed out and hid all the windows he could on the computers that would give away their plan. It was a long shot... but hopefully this would work. He just had to trust that his elder could handle this on his own.

\----------

“You weren’t kidding when you said everything smelled dull,” Mei said with a frown. They were walking around the city looking for anything that could possibly help them get out of here. So far no luck, everything appeared to just be as normal as normal could possibly be. MK had even tried breaking something with his staff on “accident” and only got a slightly angry but forgiving shopkeeper once he paid for the broke table out of it. “Now that I’m really paying attention to it I can’t help but notice it.”

“It’s bizarre,” Red Son chimed in with a growl, true frustration having long since started to bloom in his expression. “Nothing’s happened! No one is attacking us, no one is trying to make everything perfect. It’s just... _Normal_!” The last word was screeched out, his hair flaming up before he took a breath and calmed back down. “I don’t think this is Jin and Yin anymore. It’s too different from what you described to us.”

Despite not wanting to, MK couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “I think you’re right... this has to be a Calabash, I’m sure of it! But unless they got really good at making more than two step plans really quickly, someone must be helping them.”

Though who that could possibly be they had no clue. As far as the three of them knew the Gold and Silver Demons weren’t really affiliated with anyone specifically. They seemed to run around doing their own thing for the most part.

“There’s got to be some kind of clue around here about how to get out, nothing technological is perfect!” Mei chimed up with a wide smile. “Who knows, maybe the solution will just hit us when we least expect i-”

“WATCH OUT!”

The trio jumped in surprise at the yell, voice familiar but sounding just off enough to startle them. They looked up as a cloud barreled down and ducked right before it flew right into an alley behind them, a series of yelps and crashes and curses being let out by whoever had hitched a ride on it.

“God bloody damn it how does he even fly this stupid thing?” They heard from inside, and they all carefully stepped into the alleyway. MK pulled out his staff, Mei her sword, and Red Son lit his hands on fire in preparation.

“UH...” MK lowered his staff just a bit when he caught sight of the figure in front of them, turned away from them and brushing dust and dirt off his clothes with his tail swiping madly at the air like he didn’t exactly know what to do with it. “M-Monkey King?”

“Monkey King” tensed, turning quickly with an uncharacteristic look of surprise and... fear? Fear on his face. “Uh... you’re sorta right, MK.”

“Ok, you are definitely _not_ Monkey King, he NEVER calls me MK and he definitely does not have an accent like that,” MK said as he raised his staff back up with a raised brow. “And you are definitely not the fake Monkey King we just left who did call me Bud and Kid instead. Who the hell are you!?”

The new fake Monkey King raised his hands in a sign of surrender, laughing awkwardly. “Whoa, whoa! No need to attack, I’m here to help you! Surprised you don’t recognize me already, do we really sound that much alike?”

“Wait a- JIN!?” “THAT’S Jin?” “But how?” MK, Red Son, and Mei all shouted one right after the other, looking between the Jin-Turned-Monkey-King and each other.

“Change back!” MK shouted, extended his staff just enough to poke Jin in the chest. “Stop looking like that right now!”

“I can’t,” Jin sighed out, taking a step back and away from the staff jutting into his rib cage. “I mean, I can if I try for a minute, but it’s not safe! I need to be disguised and apparently using this digital form already made up with your info this is the best disguise the program decided for me.”

“AH HA I was right this is a Calabash!” MK shouted in victory before realizing this just confirmed what they had already agreed to. “Ahem... OK... why do you need to be disguised? And why did you say you were here to help us? Isn’t this one of your plans?”

Jin winced at the questions and looked away, rubbing one of his arms. It looked... bizarre and wrong to see on the Sun Wukong’s face. Sure, MK had seen the ancient being look vulnerable before but it was never anything like this. “Yin and I were... tricked into helping someone we shouldn’t have. She’s got control of everything right now, except an extra Calabash Yin has me in that I’m remotely connected to you from. I can help you get out of here if you just trust me for a bit.”

“Oh, like we’re just going to trust you like that!” Mei growled, taking a step closer. “How do we know this isn’t some kind of trick? That this isn’t part of your plan?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna admit that me and Yin aren’t really that good at plans,” Jin deadpanned with a frown. “I mean, we’re pretty smart! We made an entire virtual reality system that can hold multiple people shrunk down with magic and replicate anything from their own memories after all! But we’re not really good at more than 2 step evil plans.”

“He has a point,” Red Son interjected. “We fought them 2 months ago and even then their plan was ‘take control of the city water supply, fight Monkie Kid’. They didn’t have a plan aside from just... holding the water and hoping they’d win.”

“See, bad at plans!” Jin pipped up with a wide awkward smile, and that felt more natural if a little exaggerated to see. “But! We’re good at tech, and the problem here is tech we personally made. So I can help you!”

“Again, why though?” MK asked, lowering his staff cautiously. “Why help us? Wouldn’t whoever you’re working for getting rid of us be good for you?”

Jin frowned again, looking down at his (Sun Wukong’s) hands. “... It was my idea. A week or so ago... A woman came by asking for a job, told us to just call her Vapor, learned real quick that wasn’t her name after she dropped her disguise... We needed the extra cash to fill a tech order for another demon and it sounded easy enough. Make a Calabash convincing enough to trick the Monkie Kid’s senses so that he couldn’t get out from the inside. And it was easy, we already had everything being worked on ourselves! But then...” He scoffed, crossing his arms and looking away. “She started to want to get all three of ya. Started talking about wanting it to be ‘worse for him, more painful’. We didn’t know what she was talkin about, but we knew from context clues that whoever ‘him’ was wasn’t you.”

MK let his staff down entirely but didn’t put it away, earning odd looks from Mei and Red Son. He shook his head, gesturing to Jin and then their weapons to urge them to stand down for the moment.

“Then she started to get frustrated,” Jin continued. “She pushed us to work harder, faster, and when we tried to cut off the deal she... she pulled out this kind of smoking pipe and I don’t know what the hell she has in it but that stuff knocked us out harder than any drink ever did. When we woke up we were... stuck.”

“Stuck?” MK asked. “Wait, you work for _other_ demons?”

“Yeah yeah, we make tech for other demons, that ain’t the point right now!” Jin cleared his throat, continuing his explanation. “She had some kind of... of sealin charm on the building. No demons gettin in, no demons gettin out. ‘cept for her, she’s got some kinda charm around her neck that lets her leave whenever she wants. We’ve been stuck in our little hidden HQ ever since and whenever we get too rowdy or annoying she just puts us to sleep again. I don’t know how much more of that we can breathe in before it starts to actually hurt us, and whatever she has planned wasn’t for you. You’re just some kinda-a pawn. To hurt someone else. That’s why I want to help you, she’s hurtin my brother and as much as we want to take you down the Gold and Silver Demons will not be used as pawns in other’s schemes.”

“So it’s a pride thing,” Red Son said as he crossed his arms. “You’re helping us because this Vapor woman hurt your pride.”

“Yeah, and what of it?” Jin crossed his arms in turn, glaring at the fire demon. “Need a better reason or do you not want my help?”

“We want your help!” MK jumped in with a sigh. “Any help, even help from pride alone, is probably needed right now.”

“Great!” Jin smiled wide again, and the quickly changing expressions he was showcasing on the Monkey King’s face were starting to give the trio tonal whiplash. “Should be simple enough, she’s out and about right now so all we gotta do is get to a little something Yin and I added in while she wasn’t looking before she gets back.” He smirked, prideful and eager to brag. “An emergency access hub. Didn’t have time to program it to pop up on command, but once we get to our hidden HQ we can access it and force this Calabash to just spit us out! You probably could have found it yourselves... eventually...”

“That’s... surprisingly easy and simple,” Mei said, but smiled after a moment. “But worth a shot I guess. If you’re lying we can just kick your butt and get out of here the old fashioned way!”

This caused Jin to laugh nervously again, raising his hands up. “No lying, promise! Just follow me-EAGH!” When he took a step he stumbled, righting himself as he flailed his arms and sighed. “Stupid tail, how do you balance with this thing?” He took another careful step, then another, and after a moment he just grabbed his tail and yelped at the sensation and wrapped it around his wrist before walking normally. “This is bloody weird.”

“I’ll say...” MK muttered as he watched Jin step out of the alley and wave his free hand, the air in front of him glitching in a familiar way before a digital floating map rested before him. “... ok, that’s kinda cool.”

Jin paused, looking back at them with a bit of a flushed tint on Monkey King’s ears. “Uh... thanks? Just follow me, this will tell us if anything pings the system to alert it that I’m here or she comes back.”

They followed Jin for a moment, fake people staring at the full form of Sun Wukong in awe. The same way MK and the others would have expected them to in real life.

“Wait, hold on!” Mei piped up after a moment. “You said you found out Vapor wasn’t this mystery woman’s name, but you never told us who she was! What’s her real name, maybe we already know who she is!”

“Yeah, if we know who she is we can plan on how to kick her ass!” MK agreed.

Jin shook his head. “I don’t know if even you three can fight her at this point, she’s strong. Way stronger than I already knew she could have gotten over the years. You’re gonna need more than a little help to take her down.” He turned to Red Son.

“What?” Red Son questioned, tips of his hair sparking as he tensed in confusion and worry. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because Vapor was-AAAAAHHHHH!”

And Jin fell to the ground _screaming_.

\----------

“And to what do we owe the.... _honor_ of your visit,” The Demon Bull King growled lowly, arms raised slightly at his sides as Princess Iron Fan stood on his shoulder. Her own glare was even more formidable than her husband’s.

“Brother Ox,” Sun Wukong greeted as he bowed in respect. “I-”

“We stopped being brothers in name long ago, _Sun Wukong_ ,” DBK growled low again. “Now state your business here before I lose my patience and we continue our last fight.”

“I’m surprised we aren’t already fighting...” Pigsy whispered to Tang. “This is weird...”

And Pigsy was right, the situation was weird. They had snuck in, Wukong ready to fight and get them out of there if things had gotten out of hand. Instead, they were greeted with a very annoyed but subdued Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan who looked ready and willing to murder all of them if given half an excuse... but for some reason were holding themselves back.

“Demon Bull King,” Wukong corrected himself with a small frown, holding his bow for an extra moment before straightening himself. “I have come to ask for a temporary truce... and your help.”

DBK grit his teeth, leaning down until he was nearly nose to nose with the Monkey King, PIF holding onto his horn on her side to remain stable. “And what makes you think I would ever agree to that?”

“The reason I am asking for it,” Wukong continued, not even reacting to the snorted breath in his face. “MK, Mei, and your son were supposed to join me on Flower Fruit Mountain this morning. We... have not been able to find them.”

This immediately got both parents attention, DBK narrowing his gaze dangerously as he stood up straight so fast PIF had to hold on tighter to not fall off. “What are you implying?”

“MK, Mei, _and_ Red Son are missing. We want your help to find them.”


	6. Knew you weren’t human but who’d guess?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations. History. Collision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this was supposed to be up on Saturday last week... I thought I had posted it, but due to issues offline I had completely forgotten. But I went over this chapter, edited it, and moved some things from it into the next chapter for a better flow and therefore it is a smidgen short! (No special spoilers here.)
> 
> Warnings: Descriptions canonical violence in Journey To The West, smoking and drug use on others.

“Jin! Jin, what’s happening!?” MK yelled, watching as the Gold Demon in the form of his mentor fell to his knees and screamed. His entire form glitched and rippled as the world around them shook and shook and shook so hard that they could barely keep on their feet. The world rippled around them, wisps of pieces of the ground and building glitching in front and between them blocking their vision. “JIN!”

The demon didn’t reply, the longer he screamed the more none of the trio was even certain that he could, curling into himself and bending at the waist so much that his forehead dug into the ground beneath him. And suddenly the shaking was gone while the pained screaming remained.

“What is happening!?” Mei whirled around in the hopes of seeing anything that could give them a hint as to what was happening. “W-what the hell?”

No one was reacting. Every single fake person in the Calabash city just kept on going about their day as if the visage of the Monkey King doubled over and screaming in agony wasn’t in front of them at all.

“Oh please,” a voice rang out from all around them. “Did you think I wouldn’t catch on? No cheating allowed in my little game you four.”

The trio looked at each other with wide eyes. They didn’t recognize this voice at all. It was feminine, that was much was certain, smooth and calm like nothing was happening at all and it was spoken as if through the opening to a vast cave that made it vibrate the very air surrounding them.

“What did you do to Jin!?” MK yelled back, kneeling down to put a hand on his back. Jin’s screams had begun to die down and now he was shaking violently, though whether it was because whatever had caused him to start screaming had stopped or if it was because he physically could not anymore.

“Just a little incentive for him to cooperate while I do a little something something,” the voice rang out again, a high pitched and haughty chuckle following soon after. “It’s amazing what these two little buffoons have managed to create while being sooooo bad at figuring out how to actually use it. Almost as clever as growing little kits.”

“Kits?” Red Son muttered, looking to the sky and narrowing his gaze.

“Shit...” Jin suddenly groaned out, not getting up from his place on the ground. “What did you do to me?” He tried to turn his head but didn’t seem to have the energy to do so and the sight of this happening with Sun Wukong’s face made MK feel sick to his stomach.

“Incentive, I said,” The voice sounded exasperated now, a low drawn out groan sounding out. “You should be very familiar with it by now, though this batch is more of the paralyzing variety than the sleeping one so maybe it should be expected for you to not realize what I had blown into your secret little calabash.”

Vapor. The voice was most definitely Vapor, or whoever was hiding behind that moniker. The realization they had had been caught before their plan to escape could even really start sent ice cold shudders down all of their spines.

“How did you even k-”

“You thought I actually left?” Vapor cut Mei off with a tut, and suddenly the world started shaking violently for a few seconds before calming down. “I wouldn’t be dumb enough to turn my back on these two for a second, they may not be the best plotters but they’re not dumb. No no no, I knew they had a little something up their sleeve. That’s why I pretended to leave. Muuuuuuch easier to deal with one of them than both of them, less costly in supplies as well.”

“What did you do to my brother!?” Jin screeched, just barely managing to push himself to his feet with a snarl that dissipated instantly. “Wh-what... did you do to me?”

“You like it?” Vapor giggled this time, still high and haughty. “Why wear the face of Sun Wukong remotely when you can just be him instead? Much easier to keep track of you when you’re all in one place...” The sound of a crunch could be heard, ringing in all their ears as Jin’s face dropped in horror at the realization that it had been the calabash he was originally in. And no longer in. “As for your brother he is taking a much needed nap. He’s veeeery comfy I can assure you, very safe. Safer than you will be.”

“You let us out of here right now you damned fox!” Jin yelled, finding his anger just in time for a whooshing sound and smoke to start billowing from the sky and to surround them. “Aw shit, no! No, cover your mouths!”

The warning came far too let, the smoke seeping into their mouths and eyes before the trio could even attempt to cover them. They coughed and gagged on the sickly sweet and bitter taste on their tongues, eyes burning and tears failing to relieve them.

“F-fox?” Red Son coughed out, trying his best to remain standing and failing miserably as he joined the others in the ground in only a few seconds. “It’s n-not possible, you’re-!”

“Dead?” Vapor’s voice rang out again as a form glitched in front of them, a patchwork tapestry of people before eventually forming a whole person who’s face lit up as Red’s fell into one of horror and recognition. “Awww, you do know me! I was afraid your father had never kept any of my portraits.”

She stepped forward, tall and regal and draped in rich silken robes of old fashion. Hair half up with intricate pins and a jade comb, the tell tale giveaways of a fox spirit showing in her long tail and large ears.

Princess Jade Face knelt down, smile softening even though no kindness shown through it as she cupped Red Son’s face in her hands. “Oh my dear little kit, I am terribly sorry you had to meet your step-mother like this.”

\----------

Thunder and lighting surrounded them, electricity and bangs that could shake the ground itself the backdrop to their battle. Princess Jade Face gritted her teeth, growling low in her throat. If she knew this is what would become of her after moving from being the demon Bull King’s concubine to his second wife she would have never taken the chance.

“This altitude ain’t the only thing I got over you!” That damned pig, Zhu Bajie, yelled from the rocky alcove above her with a wickedly proud smirk. He swung his rake, mythical energies emanating from it in a clear warning to stay away. She couldn’t afford to listen to that warning, not if she wanted to keep her position. She’d worked so hard to gain the bull’s favor and she wouldn’t just give it up now.

“Big words traveler, but can you back them up?” Jade Face snarled, allowing her fangs and claws to morph in. Damn this pig for forcing her to reveal herself. Damn that monkey for demanding the fan. Damn the monk, the fish, the dragon-horse! Damn them all!

“Oh I can back them up and than some, show me what you got!” With a yell the pig leapt off the rocks.

“Gladly, your journey ends here with me!” She leapt forward in turn, allowing her herself to fully become her fox-woman form. She grabbed the rake before it made contact with her skull, swinging it and it’s owner to the other side of the field.

“Knew you weren’t human but who’d guess?” The pig sneered, swinging the rake again to show off. “A fox spirit all along. Doesn’t matter what you are though, this rake will rend your soul regardless!”

Oh, rend her soul would it? Not without a fight! Jade Face dropped to all fours, running around Zhu Bajie and cartwheeling once behind him to catch him off guard and kick his legs out from under him.

She lengthened her claws, swinging down to gore at his throat before the blunt end of the rake slammed into her stomach and sent her flying with no air left in her lungs. Barely landing on her feet she just managed to catch the pig lunging at her with nine teeth aimed right at her face, falling back just in time to be missed. She rolled, kicking him in the stomach in retribution and grabbed one of his ears to bite at his neck.

That’s when she felt all nine of those barely missed teeth sink into her back.

She froze, jolting only when they were pulled out and the pig moved to let her fall face down into the dirt.

“Gotta admit,” she heard him say distantly, growing further and further away. He was leaving, no doubt to return to his master and companions. “You ain’t half bad. No match for me, but still not half bad. Maybe if I ever end up in the underworld we could have a rematch.”

Rematch. Rematch, that word spun around in her head as she laid in the dirt. Warm blood seeping from her wounds and painting her back in a deep red. A rematch.

‘He will get much more than a rematch some day,’ Jade Face thought to herself as she finally moved once she was sure he had left, crawling through the field to hide away and lick her wounds. ‘He’ll learn not to leave things unfinished.’

\----------

Princess Jade Face leaned back in her chair, hands typing wildly at the keyboard in front of her as she turned the memory over in her head. She watched the chaos unfold on the screens before her, a smile forming on her lips as she finally turned away to empty her smoking pipe to fill it with another concoction of her own making.

Yes. Zhu Bajie would learn not to leave things unfinished.

Zhu Bajie would learn the hard way.

She was sorry for getting Red Son involved, but her husband... well. Not him.


	7. Real Feeling Illusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We return to the world outside the Calabash and someone regrets their life choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter than I intended since I was unhappy with how the additions to this chapter flowed and I rewrote them entirely, there are no spoilers for the special (I had removed or edited them into something unrelated) but there will be some allusions to it in the coming chapters.

Mei let out a yell of surprise as she felt cold metal settle into her hands, something that should be familiar but felt brand new despite that.

Her eyes snapped open to green, green and more green, every shade surrounding her as she stared into the gazes of her ancestors. The same judgemental gazes that she had already faced once before.

"Wh-what?"

The only thing that answered her were the glowers and whispers of the dragons above her, sneering, chastising, questioning.

“This has already happened... I've already done this...”

\----------

"Monkey King!?"

Red Son gasped, eyes opening to a sight he wished to never see again.

"Come to take me? Find me?"

His breathing quickened, shaking his head as he took a step back.

"I will not let that simian abomination triumph again!"

This couldn't be happening again, it had to be a trick of the Calabash. Red Son had to believe it was as he watched his father scream over the screens showing MK and his friends coming closer and heard the whispers of the White Bone Spirit on the wind.

\----------

"Hey, kid? You paying attention?"

The voice calling him made MK's blood run cold as his eyes snapped open, a far too familiar derelict dojo greeting his vision. And one very familiar, amused, dark furred monkey.

"No..." MK breathed quietly, holding his staff tighter. "No no, this isn't possible. It can't do this can it?"

"What's wrong?" Macaque asked, spinning a training staff in his hand with an easy friendly smile, practiced he now knew. Practiced to trick him, trap him, get what he wants out of him. It went softer, faker, kinder, and it _hurt_. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

\----------

The air within the Bull Family's current abode was tense, Wukong's words weighing it down heavily. No one dared do more than breathe until the Demon Bull King or Princess Iron Fan reacted first.

While Iron Fan's face had fallen into disbelief and some form of concern, DBK's face was nearly unreadable. Eyes closed, arms crossed, the most emotion showing was the faintest furrowing of his brow.

"Darling?" PIF said softly, running her hand down his face in a soft display of affection that felt odd to watch for the group on the ground.

"I will assist you," DBK offered suddenly, turning to his wife with a soft rumble. "What wi-"

"I am helping," she answered instantaneously, features hardening as she turned back toward Wukong and the rest of the group.

"I should have assumed as much," DBK chuckled out, smiling softly for a split second before his features hardened once again. "I know my son, if you cannot find him then he is either hiding himself and his-" he growled deeply, spitting out the next word like poison. "-friends on purpose, which I doubt he could do for long with you searching of all people, or someone has made the mistake of angering the wrong family."

"Unfortunately we have no reason to assume it is anything but the later now," Wukong said, tone noticeably more relaxed but still more even and businesslike than normal. "This is what we know so far..."

Pigsy breathed out a sigh of relief, albeit the smallest possible any living being could manage, as Wukong began to explain to Red Son's parents in great detail exactly what they had done and what they had learned so far. There was something... off about it, however.

DBK was too calm. Almost... solemnly so. Now, normally he wouldn't be surprised if Iron Fan had been around to keep him calm, but she was hardly doing anything but sitting on his shoulder and talking to him in a hushed voice. Pigsy didn't know him all that well but every single time he had interacted with him, and from some stories from Wukong's younger days, he had always had a temper that put Red Son's fiery one to shame.

"Pigsy?" Tang said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder for a moment before frowning and squeezing it gently. "What's on your mind?"

"Somethin' ain't right here," he said with a shake of his head. "Somethin' _really_ ain't right. Wukong can tell too, look at his tail. It's all puffed up on the back. Those two are hiding somethin' from us.” He turned to Sandy, who silently nodded in agreement.

Tang hummed softly, his grip on the pig demon’s shoulder tightening past gentle reassurance to a grounding firmness. “I trust your judgement, Pigsy. Let’s hope we can trust Wukong’s too, ok?”

Pigsy nodded himself, reaching up to grasp the scholar’s hand in a firm grip as they watched on from the sidelines still, waiting for anything to happen now. They didn’t have to wait too much longer before a gust of wind rushed past them and lifted PIF of her husband’s shoulder, setting her on the ground to the side of the two men.

“I will see what I can do with the equipment Red Son has left behind,” she said firmly, standing tall and looking all the more like a leader to an army than anything else at the moment. “While the Bull Clones will not likely be of any help, he left enough that should at least prove somewhat useful for a more delicate mission.” She frowned for a moment, looking up at her husband. “And... tell them. It might help.”

DBK startled, looking down at his wife with wide eyes. Now that was a look Pigsy had never seen on his face before. “Are you sure?”

“You and I both know that is the sole reason we need to find our son,” she said, frown deepening for just a moment before she wiped all expression from her face and allowed the wind to carry her off deeper into their hideout.

Now everyone was just confused, looking at the hulking demon lord as he scowled and ran a hand down his face. He turned to look at the group, taking them all in before focusing on Wukong again with a growl deep in his throat. “I had hoped we could convince him to return of his own accord and you would not find out about this,” he said with a deeper growl, scowling down at the Monkey King before sighing and seeming to relax ever so slightly. “But now... it has been so long I am doubting that is even possible now.”

“What are you talking about?” Wukong asked with a raised brow, fur bristling more noticeable as he tensed. “We knew you had been trying to get him to come back to your side.”

“Do you know why he left?” DBK continued, scowling even deeper than before. “Did you ever wonder why he chose to go to you?”

“...No,” Wukong admitted after a while, dropping his arms down to his sides. “I wanted to say that yeah we did, and no that doesn’t matter, but he’s never exactly been open about what made him come to Flower Fruit Mountain that day. Why?” He narrowed his gaze, watching the larger demon closely. “Wait... wait, you don’t mean-”

“Oh yes,” DBK said flatly, the sound of his teeth gritting together reverberating through the room and making everyone wince. “Ever since the Lunar New Year festival, Wukong. And it backfired spectacularly.”

\----------

“Let!” _Thunk._ “Me!” _Thunk_ , _a cough._ “OUT!” _Thunk_. “AGH!” _Crack._ “FUCK!” _  
_

Jin let out a screech of pain as he felt something in his hand give way, a knuckle or maybe a full finger bone. It didn’t matter either way, in only a few seconds it had fixed itself just as painfully as it had broken and left him with a fully intact hand for the third time.

“You’re one sick fox lady, you know that?” He yelled into the air, scowling even more as he changed tactics to attempting to kick himself out of containment. Trapped in what appeared to be the same little room he had left Yin in when he last saw him.

He may have the appearance of the Monkey King at the moment, and it may have given him access to some of his powers because of that, but physically he knew he was still Jin. The Gold Horned Demon. Not Sun Wukong, The Handsome Monkey King and The Great Sage Equal to Heaven. The Calabash itself knew this, could only go so far in the illusion, and not having breakable bones was apparently outside of the abilities of his and his brother’s device. Though he knew he was not actually being hurt, physically, everything that happened here was an illusion.

A very real feeling illusion. Unlike... unlike what could be happening to Yin...

At the thoughts of his brother in possible peril, Jin sighed, stopping his assault on the door to sit down on the makeshift cot they had been relegated to. He felt his tail (still a new and odd sensation to know he had one that moved of its own accord) drop down beside him, looking as deflated as he felt.

What if Princess Jade Face was hurting Yin? What if she had already hurt him? Was she using the new smoke on him as well or the sleeping smoke? His mind rushed through thought after thought of what she could do to hurt his brother while he wasn’t there to protect him... not that he had been doing a good job of it in the first place, all this being his fault in the first place.

He coughed again, throat aching from the after effects on whatever the new smoke was. His eyes burned and his head swam in lightheaded weightlessness. He wondered if it was supposed to hurt like this or if it was the combination of smokes, wondered if the trio trapped alongside him was feeling this or none or even worse. He wondered if they were safe.

“Safe?” He asked himself with a scowl. “Don’t tell me you’re actually giving a damn about those three outside of surviving yourself, me.”

He didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to wonder what that meant. The only people he worried about were his brother first and then himself. And he would get the hell out of here, broken hands or legs or not.


End file.
